Stay architecturally enlightened!

Syria’s largest city was home to more than two million people before the war. Now most of its residents have left, and the city is divided between pro-government forces and rebels
— NYT

Sergio Peçanha and Jeremy White reveal satellite image analysis by Unitar-Unosat, showing vast devastation in 4 cities across Syria from the civil war that started nearly four years ago. View full entry »

The rest of the buildings came naturally, if gradually. The idea of having a slew of small houses for different activities, moods and seasons, complemented by decorative 'follies,' was Johnson’s conception for the site from early on. He called it a 'diary of an eccentric architect," but it was also a sketchbook, an homage to architects past and present
— NYT - T Magazine

Alexandra Lange explores the 49 acre grounds and architectural neighbors of Glass House. Ranging from; the "bunkerlike Brick House" and "postmodern Library" to the more historic structures of Calluna Farms and Grainger. View full entry »

Nicholas Korody recapped Michael Maltzan’s recent talk at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles, in which Maltzan explained "the relationship his projects hold to their infrastructural, urban and social contexts". Justine Testado reported in from the WUHO Gallery in Hollywood... View full entry »

A UC Berkeley research team led by Ronald Rael, associate professor of architecture, will unveil today (Friday, March 6) the first and largest powder-based 3-D-printed cement structure built to date. The debut of this groundbreaking project is a demonstration of the architectural potential of 3-D printing. It will close the fifth annual Berkeley Circus, which celebrates the research and accomplishments of the College of Environmental Design (CED) community.
— UC Berkely

Yesterday, legislators in Orange County, New York failed to stave off the demolition of Paul Rudolph's Orange County Government Center. In January, county executive Steven M. Neuhaus vetoed a proposal that would entertain outside bids like Manhattan architect Gene Kaufman's, to purchase, restore, and repurpose the structure. Kaufman also proposed designing a new government center next door, with a proposed budget less than that of the county's current plan [...].
— curbed.com

Previously:Michael Kimmelman on why Paul Rudolph's brutalist Orange County building is worth savingFuture of Paul Rudolph's brutalist Orange County building still uncertainPaul Rudolph's brutalist Orange County gem to be repurposed as "arts hub"Gwathmey Siegel's Kaufman wants to buy Paul Rudolph's... View full entry »

As buildings from the postmodern eon continue to age with their residents, questions about historic significance and aesthetic relevance start to surface, leading to often heated debates whether the structures we used to love so much already merit magisterial protection or should give way for the... View full entry »

This week Amelia, Paul, Donna and Ken discuss the somewhat controversial Google Headquarters design by BIG and Heatherwick. On a completely different note, we also discuss the new, and the nation's first, slavery museum, Whitney Plantation, in Louisiana. As always, you can send us your... View full entry »

How much more does it cost the public to build infrastructure and provide services for sprawling development compared to more compact neighborhoods? A lot more, according to this handy summary from the Canadian environmental think tank Sustainable Prosperity.

To create this graphic, the organization synthesized a study by the Halifax Regional Municipality [PDF] in Nova Scotia, and the research is worth a closer look.
— streetsblog.org

Epic Games, the company best known for Gears of War, has a very different plan for this generation of video games — one that expands far beyond what games are typically assumed to be. [...]

In this future, or present if you ask Sweeney, lessons learned from one field, say an architect designing a virtual building, can be applied to games or film, and likewise. Sweeney believes the potential application of the engine across all fields increases exponentially as information is shared.
— theverge.com

Last August, on the Apollonian campus of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, neuroscientists and architects came together to flush the architecture profession with a bit more cerebral rigor. Under the guidance of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA), that... View full entry »

Jean Nouvel applied for a court mandate ordering that his name and image be completely removed from all references to the "sabotaged" Philharmonie de Paris at the Parc de La Vilette. Nouvel boycotted the grand opening of the unfinished 2,400-seat concert venue in January. In a column for Le Monde... View full entry »

With all the cultural, sports and real-estate projects launched throughout the United Arab Emirates, there have been persistent protests about the working and living conditions [...] ”Serious concerns about workers’ rights have not been resolved”, claims the advocacy group, asking for a commitment for ”more serious protection” from these institutions and Saadiyat Island’s developers. [...] appears to have made a serious effort to address the concern expressed by Western museums and architects.
— theartnewspaper.com

Michael Kimmelman’s column this week, about the debate over plans to demolish a midcentury Paul Rudolph building in Goshen, N.Y., makes the case for why it should be saved. It is only one example of his taking up a cause. As The Times’s architecture critic, he has not been shy about advocacy.

Here, he describes why he’s been outspoken in supporting this building, which doesn’t have the profile of other fights he has taken up.
— nytimes.com

UPDATE: Orange County legislators fail to save Paul Rudolph's Government CenterPreviously:Future of Paul Rudolph's brutalist Orange County building still uncertainPaul Rudolph's brutalist Orange County gem to be repurposed as "arts hub"Rethinking a Spurned LandmarkGwathmey Siegel's Kaufman wants... View full entry »

For [Hyperloop Transportation Technologies], the Quay Valley test track is a way to test its idea of smaller hyperloop rings that could eventually connect to a bigger loop that runs along I-5. For Quay Valley and Hays, the test track is a wildly futuristic attraction [...]

It follows a narrative pulled from the world of consumer technology, rather than conventional urban planning. Quay Valley isn't really a place with people yet ... it's a collection of technologies that residents will use.
— gizmodo.com

Transit oriented developments, or TODs, are mixed-use urban nodes designed with public transit as their core. The typology emerged from the idea that well-integrated and easy access to transit supports businesses and an active urban life, and that strategic transportation planning can help make... View full entry »